Create Straightforward Packages
Once you narrow down the underserved market you want to reach and a specific problem you can solve, it is time to productize your service.
Instead of customizing what you offer for each customer, create simple, straightforward packages and pricing anyone can understand. While your competition is busy writing up long custom proposals, your customer will be signing up for your packages because they understand how it solves their problem.
Customers often want a custom package. The thing is, they hired your for a reason; you know what you are doing. Why let them waste both of your time creating a cumbersome custom proposals when you already know what they need. A little education and a clear packaged deal make asking for the sale as easy as 1-2-3!
Why Productize?
Productizing your service will help you:
- Save time
- Be more clear about what you offer
- Eliminate friction to purchase
- Create efficiency
- Make sharing about what you offer easier for others
Be Clear About What You Offer
Before you can productize your service, you have to be clear about what you do for your customer. If can't explain what you offer and how it solves your customers problem in a few sentences you will struggle to productize your offering. This is the most challenging part of the process for a lot of people.
Take time to simplify what you do into basic steps. Take out a piece of paper and begin to identify your offering at a high level. Breaking down what you do into parts will also help you to create processes, which we will cover more in depth in the next post.
What are the most important parts of your solution? What are the key components you can offer to differentiate yourself? What are the elements of your offering that have to happen every time?
Start by writing out everything that you offer. Then simplify that down to one page. Then half a page. Finally, simplify your offering down to a paragraph.
Don't cheat. Limiting yourself to one paragraph will help you decide what about your offering is truly important.
Create Packages
Take your simplified explanation of what you do and create packages based on the most common needs you run into. You can either only offer those packages or use them to build out a custom solution but save a lot of time in the process. If possible, I highly recommend offering a set price package whenever possible.
Offering a set price allows you to sell based on the value you are offering not on the work you actually do. The more efficient you are, the more you will make.
This topic and the rest of the steps in the Business Growth Guide are covered in much greater detail in the Brand Compass Course. You can access the first section of the course, which covers the customer profile, here.